Biography

Maximilian Schmitt discovered his love for music as a young lad when he was a member of the Regensburg cathedral boys’ choir, the ‘Regensburger Domspatzen’. From 1999 he studied singing under Prof. Anke Eggers at the Berlin Universität der Künste. In 2005 and 2006 he was a member of the Young Ensemble of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, where he gathered further experience in the master classes of Ann Murray and Robert Dean Smith.

While he was still with the Young Ensemble, he made his debut at the Salzburg Landestheater as Tamino in the Magic Flute. After a number of guest appearance in minor roles at the Bavarian State Opera, Maximilian Schmitt was a member of the ensemble of the Mannheim National Theatre, where he appeared as David in the Meistersinger, Lenski in Eugene Onegin and in the lyrical Mozart roles such as Tamino, Don Ottavio, Belmonte and Ferrando. In the sumer of 2012, Maximilian Schmitt brought his Mannheim period to an end with the title role in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito. On the international stage, Maximilian Schmitt appeared in concert performances of Don Giovanni with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Robin Ticciati as Don Ottavio and – again in a concert performance – with the WDR Symphony Orchestra as Telemacho in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria. In 2012, Robin Ticciati invited him once more, this time to sing Ferrando in Così fan tutte. At the end of 2012 he is making his debut at the Amsterdam Opera as Tamino in the new production by Simon McBurney under Marc Albrecht. In the coming year, he can be heard in the same role in Bregenz, and also as the Steersman in The Flying Dutchman in Geneva.

Alongside his passion for opera, he also attaches great importance to concert performances. His broad repertoire ranges from Monteverdi via Mozart to Mendelssohn, invited by conductors such as Andrew Manze, Daniel Harding, Thomas Hengelbrock, Leopold Hager, Ulf Schirmer, Philippe Herreweghe, Marcus Creed, Trevor Pinnock, René Jacobs, and Helmuth Rilling, and orchestras such as the Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin, Concerto Köln, the Basel Chamber Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestras of Bayerischer Rundfunk and Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig.

With the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra he was the narrator in Schumann’s Paradies und die Peri, in which he could be heard in a stage version in Mannheim, and at the Edinburgh Festival under Roger Norrington. In addition, Maximilian Schmitt is a regular guest in Paris (Orchestre de Paris/Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Ensemble orchestral de Paris/Reinhard Goebel, Ensemble Accentus/Laurence Equilbey). He maintains close contact with Philippe Herreweghe, with whom he can show off the whole gamut of his repertoire, where as the Evangelist in the Bach Passions, in Haydn’s oratorios, Dvorak’s Stabat mater all the way to Kurt Weill’s Berliner Requiem. Following his first collaboration with Claudio Abbado at the Lucerne Festival, the latter has invited him to appear in Rome with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia for a performance of Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang in the autumn of 2013. Other upcoming highlights include concerts with the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst (Haydn/Seasons),the Symphony Orchestra of Bayerischer Rundfunk (Welser-Möst) and the Gürzenich-Orchester under Markus Stenz.

No less important on Maximilian Schmitt’s calendar are lieder recitals, in which he is accompanied by Gerold Huber. With the soprano Christina Landshamer, he has compiled a duo recital for the Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna, reflecting the German ‘lied’ in the context of the ‘Spot on Deutschland’ Festival. Solo lieder recitals will take him to his home city of Regensburg with Schubert’s Schöne Müllerin, to Munich, and to the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, with Schumann to the Heidelberger Frühling (Heidelberg Spring Music Festival) and in 2013 with Brahms, Schubert and Hindemith to Ingolstadt, and finally to the Philharmonie in Cologne. The Oehms label has released his debut CD with lieder by Schumann: ‘Träumend wandle ich bei Tag’, while Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin will be released in the spring of 2013, in good time for Maximilian Schmitt’s debut at the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg in June 2013, accompanied as ever by Gerold Huber at the piano.

In addition to the lieder recordings, the young tenor can also be heard on CD in Haydn’s Creation (Freiburg Baroque Orchestra/René Jacobs – harmonia mundi France), as aria tenor in Bach’s St Matthew Passion (Gewandhausorchester/Riccardo Chailly – DECCA); Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin/Choir of Bayerischer Rundfunk/Peter Dijkstra – BR Klassik label) has also appeared as a DVD. The CD Trauermusik der Bach-Söhne (‘Funeral Music by the sons of Bach’) from harmonia mundi France has received a number of awards. In autumn 2012 Christian Gerhaher’s first orchestra CD, ‘Romantische Arien’ (‘Romantic Arias’) is being released by Sony; Maximilian Schmitt can be heard as the tenor (Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra/Daniel Harding).

2012/2013 - (October 2012) Please only use this biography and destroy any previously dated material. Any amendments or cuts need the consent of KuenstlerSekretariat am Gasteig.

Tenor

Maximilian Schmitt